New record

Now that the dust has settled on the main Competition we finished up with 7 Senior Teams making the Semi Finals with 4 Teams Minor Premiers. This is a new Association and Club record beating the previous best of 6 in 2012/13 (all Minor Premiership winners).

Congratulations to our Teams who made it through to the next level:

• A1 – 4^th (Justin)
• A2 – 1^st (Simon)
• B1 Red – 1^st (Gunny)
• B2 – 4^th (Napper)
• C2 Blue – 1^st (Andrew)
• C3 – 1^st (Buzz)
• D1 – 3^rd or 4^th (Gautam)

Award

As mentioned in the News, we have been chosen by the Sydney Sixers Metro Community Cricket team as Community Cricket Club of the Year for the annual ‘A Sport For All Awards’ held by Cricket Australia.

Next steps involve us being considered for NSW Club of the Year against the nomination from the Sydney Thunder Metro and a Team from Regional NSW. The winner is then invited to the Cricket Australia Awards for the Club of the Year announcement in May.

What is easily forgotten is that in 2017, CNSW selected our Club as ‘Community Cricket Club of the Year’ – effectively the best Cricket Club in NSW. We attended the Sport NSW Community Sports Awards at NSW Parliament where Award winners from all Community Sports attended. We were selected by Sport NSW as Runner-up in the category of ‘Community Club of the Year’ covering all community sports in NSW.

These are all significant Awards and we have achieved them through our fantastic volunteers and everyone involved with our Club.

The Gift

Eric Junkkari (B2) is the gift who just keeps on giving. There must be something about this time of the season when Eric does something that stands out. After clearing the playground of any kids, Eric took control of the swing. Ably supported by Phil Hayes who was there to provide some spin Eric put on a show of acrobatics normally reserved for the fearless 10 years-olds. Anyway, he survived and is right to backup in the Semi’s next week.

Hendo – signing out

Scott Henderson (A1 2004/05 to 2017/18) is one of our greatest A1 fast bowlers who retired last season. Hendo also played a major role in our 4 successive A1 Premiership wins. During the week he blew full-time on his 2^nd career, as Events & Operations Manager at the SCG. How about this though as a resume for off-field sporting achievement: over 8 years he organised 240 events and watched by 4.2 million people. Hendo now heads off to the UK for the next stage of whatever life may bring.

Youngest achiever

Earlier this season we noted that Michael Gunn (B1 Red Captain and pictured 2nd right ) became our youngest ever Seniors Captain (Colts excluded). On the weekend he took this to the next level by Captaining B1 to the Minor Premiership at just 21 years 3 months and 4 days of age – obviously another record with the big one still to come.

A season of 1sts

A couple of obscure 1sts on the weekend but worth calling out.

Steve Buzz Burrows (C3 Captain)

Buzz (pictured holding the T20 Trophy) holds the Club record for the most number of John Hayne Cup attendances with 24 appearances – these are games played at the end of the season for Teams missing out on the top 4. This season he made the Semi Finals for the 1^st time since playing for our Club (2012/13) and did it in style as Minor Premiers.

C2 Blue

The boys finished Minor Premiers but what is interesting is that 10 players all scored a 50 with Stu Fiedler being one of these players and increasing his season average to a modest 96!

Confidence

Zac Morris (U16 Blue & B2) has had a massive season and just keeps getting better – scoring 433 runs @ 39.4. In the weekend game the boys were chasing a big score (281) for a draw and to guarantee a spot in the Semi’s. Anyway, Zac and Eric Junkkari opened the batting and were cruising with an opening partnership of 101 in rapid time. At one stage Zac had scored about 40 runs and Eric was still waiting to get off the mark. Zac’s comment to Eric mid pitch during this partnership is a beauty:

“If you had scored the same runs as me we would have been half-way there by now”

What might have been

The C1 boys (Skipper Tim Worthington pictured with head gear) beat the Minor Premier on the weekend and just missed out on making the Semi’s. What might have been as the boys had 5 close losses that could easily have gone the other way – 1 run, 3 runs, 4 runs, 5 runs & 16 runs!